Sharks, Kings will play outdoor game at Levi’s Stadium

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The San Jose Sharks shake hands with the Los Angeles Kings after their 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings in Game 7 of an NHL first-round playoff series at the SAP Center on Wednesday, April 30, 2014. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

THE San Francisco 49ers gave a tour of Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday morning, May 15, 2014, after announcing that the Pac-12 football championship game will be hosted there for the next three years. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

SAN JOSE — There had been hints for months that the Sharks and Los Angeles Kings would take their California rivalry outdoors next season, and the big question — where? — was answered Wednesday: Levi’s Stadium.

The NHL gave the nod to the new Santa Clara home of the 49ers over AT&T Park in San Francisco for the 7 p.m. Feb. 21 game that could set an attendance record for hockey in the Golden State. In the end, size won out over scenery as the football stadium’s 68,500-seat capacity trumped the more picturesque waterfront setting of the baseball field that holds approximately 42,000.

Better sightlines and the natural configuration of a football field were factors in the NHL’s decision, Sharks chief operating officer John Tortora said. But the higher capacity also meant ticket prices would be lower.

“This game is about our fan base that has been supporting us throughout the years, through good times and bad times,” Tortora said. “The capacity allows the league to create a wider scale ticketing pricing point to help keep the average ticket price down and more cost appropriate.”

Tickets range in price from $65 to $350 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday to season-ticket holders for both hockey teams as well as seat-license holders at Levi’s Stadium. Sharks fans with partial season-tickets will be able to purchase seats Friday, but tickets will not go on sale to the general public until late September or early October, Tortora said.

An NHL official said the decision to stage the game in Santa Clara was not an easy one, and suggested that a future outdoor game in the Bay Area likely would end up in San Francisco.

“Not that there were any negatives up the street by any means,” said Don Renzulli, the NHL’s senior vice president for events. “My guess is that we will, in the next few years, be back and we’ll probably be up at AT&T.”

The outdoor games are considered a major event for fans, but players also see them as something special.

“Excited and looking forward to it,” Sharks forward Logan Couture said Wednesday. “I’ve watched most of the outdoor games and have always hoped we would get one.”

San Jose becomes the 14th team to serve as host for an outdoor contest since the NHL’s first regular-season stadium game in Edmonton in November 2003. Since then, the league has established its annual Winter Classic on Jan. 1, and four other outdoor games were added in what was labeled the Stadium Series.

So far, only two outdoor games have been announced for this season — the 2015 Winter Classic with the Washington Capitals at home to the Chicago Blackhawks and the California matchup.

The Sharks had been lobbying for an outdoor game and their chances improved greatly Jan. 25 when the Kings and Anaheim Ducks drew a capacity crowd of 54,099 to Dodger Stadium. Concerns about ice conditions proved unwarranted, and the success of that game paved the way for another in a more temperate climate.

“I was more hopeful after the Dodger Stadium game. That was a significant hurdle for the league,” Tortora said, adding that when NHL officials toured both potential Bay Area sites in March, “that told me the league was very serious.”

The league released its 2014-15 schedule in June without designating any outdoor games, but everything pointed to the Feb. 21 game with the defending Stanley Cup-champion Kings as the most likely to be moved out of the SAP Center.

The playoff history between the two teams provides the rivalry the league is looking to feature, and this was the one San Jose home game between them that would give the league the three weeks it needed to get either Levi’s Stadium or AT&T Park ready for hockey.

Because the game is an NHL-run event, all ticket revenue goes to the league, which then compensates the Sharks for the money lost because the game was moved out of their home rink.

The Sharks-Kings game scheduled for Levi’s Stadium on Feb. 21 will be the 18th NHL outdoor game (including three exhibitions), and fourth in the Pacific time zone. Here’s a look at the three previous games: